It's a beautiful time of year to let go of the past and resentments, old or new. Forgiveness is a gift that we give to ourselves, offering us great freedom. It's like a clean slate or a blank canvas upon which we can create anew, or begin again, whilst anchored in pure Truth. Let's let it go before the new year, yes?

I am forgiving, forgivable, and forgiven.

I forgive everyone. I forgive me, I forgive you. Even if you are not sorry, or know not what you did to hurt me, I forgive you. Please forgive me too. Even if I haven't apologized, or know not what I did to hurt you, please forgive me. Even if you do know what you did to cause me pain, and even if I do know what I did to cause you pain, I forgive you. Will you forgive me too?

Where there are no words that can be spoken to change the past, there is a known apology inside of the deepest part of me and inside of the deepest part of you. I'll meet you there.

When we meet again, in whatever form that takes, we shall each be created in a new image and likeness, not bound to, nor by the past.

The deepest place within you and I are as eternal and vast as the space that spans beyond the myriad universes. When I meet you, I know that I am meeting and greeting my secret and unseen self, none greater or lesser in whole or worth. Here we are wrapped in Divine Love; here there is never anything to forgive in the first place. Where there is no I and no you, where we are one, I forgive.

I am forgiving, forgivable, and forgiven.

Photo by Elizabeth Rowley

I Release All Fear

I have learned to release unwanted thoughts of fear, doubt or worry quickly.

In my minds eye, I wrap the thought in a bubble. I then place the thought bubble in the palm of my hand.

Then I blow the bubble off of my hand.

 If another unwanted thought arises, I do the same.

What I'm left with is the eternal, unborn reality of the present moment, liberated from the bondage of fear, doubt or worry.

From here I'm free to create on the canvas of mind, and my next thought is always anchored in Love.

Open Hearts See Love Everywhere

One day I was doing household chores. It was just an ordinary day. As I was moving from one room to the next I heard the following words whispered in my head: "I love you. I love you. I love you." It was my own voice.

I stopped what I was doing and sat down on the floor to allow this love to wash over and through me. In that moment I knew that I had changed.

This new voice of unconditional love was different than the predominant voices heard in the past which I had grown all too familiar with. 

This was the soft voice of a gentle, loving Spirit within me. 

As I began to court this Love, it shifted my view of the world, and it continues to change me, even today. 

Today I court Divine Love. I let this love wash over and through me and I am transformed by it.

Radiating Love out to all who I come in contact with, it illuminates darkness, casts out fear, and renews my joy of life.

Choose Love

Today and every day I choose love.

I appreciate the polarities that Life expresses, honoring both the darkness and the light within all.

I hold them in a close embrace of tender, loving care, and affection.

I see everything and everyone through the eyes of love because I am love, and it is my nature.

I am loved, loving, and lovable.

New Beginnings

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.

Sometimes I am so focused on the ending that I cannot see nor experience the joy, possibility, and beauty of the beginning.

I may be in denial or disbelief of what's just ended.

Slowly as I begin to detach from the past, a new hope emerges. I start to realize that what just ended was no longer serving me and my highest potential good.

As I begin to bless my past, my heart forgives, and an opening or a clearing is made for brand new baby energy to reveal itself.

And then, boom!

Bloom!

Tadaaaa!

Voila!

Magic begins to happen.

Today I say yes to the magic blooming in my life.

Which Frequency Are You Tuned Into?

Guitar players adjust the strings of their guitar to a specific tuning.  They do this such that when they play, it will sound a certain way that is pleasing to the ear. They are adjusting the frequency (the vibration speed) so that the strings are in harmony with each other.  When they aren't in harmony the sound is wobbly.  When they are in harmony the sound is smooth and steady. 

Setting my intention for the day is exactly the same. I get to choose the way I want my day to look such that it is pleasing to me and in calibration with Spirit.  This is how I ensure that my values and my actions are aligned for my greatest good, and the greatest good for all.  If I notice a wobble, I embrace that wobble, consider my values, adjust my frequency, and take new action based on my values!  

For example, if I value being grateful and I intend to be tuned into gratitude, then find myself complaining, I stop, sit, and write a gratitude list.  I continue to contemplate that which I am grateful for throughout my day.  

I'm not a victim to the circumstances and conditions of the world that may arise because that's not the tuning I'm in. The frequency I'm tuned in to is of the Spirit: love, beauty, perfection, wholeness, peace, compassion, joy, gratitude, and abundance!

Which frequency are you tuned into on this day? 

Love Everyone and Don't Get Angry!

I just finished reading the new book by Ram Dass, "Polishing the Mirror."  Within the book he shares the story of a time when he was in India with some of his devotees, and his guru, Maharaji-ji.  He went to India to flee from the Western culture only to find himself in the midst of the western culture that exists within India.  This angered him.  He was so upset that he locked himself in a room.  When his Western devotees came to see him, he angrily told them to go away.  Within a short amount of time he alienated the entire group of people who were there to see him.

Ram Dass was upset and confused.  His guru constantly told him "tell the truth and don't get angry," but the truth was that Ram Dass was angry.  One night in an angry fit, he threw a plate of food to the ground.

Maharaji-ji then wanted to know what was troubling him.  Ram Dass said he couldn't stand all of those people and he couldn't even stand himself.  He hated everyone.  Maharji-ji responded with "Love everyone and don't get angry."  Ram said, "But I don't love everyone."  Maharji-ji got nose to nose with him and said, "Love everyone and tell the truth."  Ram started to say, "But..."Then he realized what Maharaji-ji was really saying to him, which was this:

When you finish being who you think you are (unable to love everyone), this is who you will be (love everyone).  He thought he was somebody who could not love everyone and tell the truth.  Maharaji-ji said, "when you give that one up, I am still here, and the game is very simple.  Love everyone and tell the truth."

Is it just me, or does anger feel like a hostile takeover within?  I am grateful for spiritual evolution and the ability to identify anger and allow it to pass by like a taxi cab on the street, rather than getting in the cab and going for a long and bumpy ride!

Most of our anger comes as the result of things not turning out the way we think they should have turned out.

When anger arises, you may find it simple to move past it by saying to yourself - "Love everyone and don't get angry."

Or take these additional steps to move through anger and liberate yourself from the bondage of it:

1. Feel your anger fully.
2. Set a specific amount of time to rant about it.
3. Take responsibility - What could you have done better?
4. Put yourself in the shoes of the other person (or people, organizations, institutions).
5. Wear a rubber band on your wrist and flick it when you begin to obsess on angry thoughts.
6. Return to loving everyone once again.

I believe that if you look hard enough you will find something to love in the eyes of another, and if you can focus on the part that you love, the anger will fall away naturally and immediately, if you allow it to.

Love everyone and don't get angry.

Change Your Lipstick Shade, Change Your Life: A Woman's Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

Last Thursday I was walking past a Sephora at the mall when I was pulled in like a magnet.  Without being mentally aware of where I was going within the store, I found myself standing in front of a plethora of makeup and I suddenly become aware of a compelling desire...no, it was a need...a compelling need for a new, bright, happy lipstick shade.

"MUST HAVE," I thought.  And so the search began.

My eyes moved quickly over the various shades of lipstick in their diverse array of tubes of different widths and lengths.  I was delighted by the numerous options before me but I didn't see what I was looking for just yet.  I continued along the lovely smorgasboard of makeup when I saw one jump out at me.  If it were a snake, it would have bit me.

On that day I went from this shade of lipstick:

To this shade of lipstick:

I was so thrilled about my new lipstick shade that I put it on right there in the store.  I was reminded that this is how my meditation practice often occurs for me.  I LOVE to meditate.  I mean LOVE it!  Sometimes I am drawn like a magnet to take that time out just for me to go within.  I realize that as I sit down to go within I never know how deep or far I will go with my meditation until I am in the midst of it.  I always go with an intention though, and it is usually to strengthen the muscle of non-attachment, surrender, or release, such that I can be more present in each moment, which always leads to greater peace and happiness for me.

My new lipstick shade had an impact on everyone I came in contact with that day, including myself.  That's right, my attitude was a little more cheery because I knew that I was wearing a new, bright shade, and it was a noticeable, beautiful color.

I have heard that if we want things to be different, we've got to do things differently.  When we first awaken to the Truth of our existence, we are careful with the thoughts we think, as they become our words.  As awakened beings who continue to evolve and blossom ever more each day like a flower, we have the awareness that our actions are a result of the thoughts we have had and the words we have spoken.  Now we can use our actions to altar, boost, or enhance our thinking (or mental attitude) which is a fun spiritual tool.  So ladies, as you travel along the path of enlightenment,  and you find yourself stuck, or lacking the enthusiasm you were used to once having, a new lipstick shade is just what you need.

Change your lipstick shade, change your life.

Much LOVE & Many Blessings,

Rev, Elizabeth Rowley

Cosmic Forgiveness: Venus to Transit the Sun Today

I was invited to a party this evening to safely view the Venus transit which is said to occur between 6 PM and 9 PM.  I am excited about this event and will definitely attend the party.  The Venus transit occurs when the planet passes between the sun & the earth creating a dark spot on the sun limiting the light from getting thru in that particular spot to us earthlings.

I looked at some images on the web of a previous Venus transit and they

reminded of a quote I once heard by Marianne Williamson that “un-forgiveness is like a dark spot on the heart that the light cannot get to.”

I have decided that I'm going to forgive Venus this evening and allow it to have safe passage between my planet and the sun.  Smile.

If you get the chance, you may want to view this once every 125 year, predictable phenomenon between 6 PM-9 PM this evening.

Perhaps you might join me in using this opportunity to forgive in planetary proportion by choosing one person, place, organization, situation or experience in which you have been secretly harboring resentment toward, creating a dark spot on your heart where the light cannot get to.  

Then project that out onto the planet Venus and watch (safely) as it transitions between the earth and the sun until only light remains.  In the silence of our own minds, raising and praising it all in the name of Love!  

Maybe we can even go a step further and project every ounce of un-forgiveness in our hearts onto it, rather than one, and then when the spot is no longer viewable, grin from ear to ear and feel the freedom!

If you are unable to safely view this phenomenon, perhaps simply knowing in your heart that the transition is occurring, forgiveness is occurring, you can bless it and call it good, for it didn't come to stay.

I call this epic forgiveness!  It's cosmic!

Namaste!

The Benefits of Spiritual Coaching: Opening to Love Through Prayer

When you find the right spiritual coach for you and begin to have spiritual coaching sessions you will receive prayer at the end of your session.  How can the prayers of another person transform you?  In ministerial school we were taught that it has to do with quantum physics and non-locality.  What’s known here, can also be known there, and a quantum leap can occur.  

I lived in a small country town growing up with lots of fields of weeds.  In the summertime there was always a big fire scare.  Some of my early childhood memories are of watching my neighbors standing on their rooftops and hosing them down so that the fire would be less likely to jump over and burn down their homes.  I always thought it was an odd thing to do.  Until I witnessed it myself.  

There was a fire burning on the right side of the street through the field of weeds and and then suddenly, just before my eyes, the field to the left side of the street was ablaze.  While there were other elements likely present such as just the right amount of wind and the weather being just hot enough outside for the leap to occur.  My point here is that it was not continuous.  A leap occurred from one thing to the next.

At some point in time there was one spark at exactly the right moment which caused a leap across the time and space of the road to ignite itself in the field on the other side of the road.  I believe the very same to be true when being prayed for/with by another.

Sometimes we can be so involved and attached to our situation, issue, condition, etc., that it is all that we can focus on.  Like when you have a sore throat and keep swallowing to see if it is still sore.  Discussing with a spiritual coach can assist you in opening up to the Love that you are.  Your coach will see the Truth of Love and  assist, guide and direct you to see just beyond the facts of your experience into something more real than anything in physical form.  

Additionally, you might begin to pray on you own.  When you pray about anything you are communing with an invisible presence that you know is real.  This holy time creates an opening in your heart and mind to see things differently, detaching you from the story around it all and propelling you up to higher ground. It’s where you belong.  It’s what you deserve.  Love,  that is.